People are judgmental. People don’t think. People just react based on appearances. Despite that old adage, “Never judge a book by its cover,” it is almost impossible to find a person that does not make assumptions based on what they see. Even before a person talks to you, they have already begun trying to read you. They naturally want to figure out things about you. Each individual person has some distinguishing feature in his or her appearance, which people will instantly try to connect to. In my case, my distinguishing characteristic is my height.

Everyone who bumps into me instantly notices that I am taller than, well, most everybody else. I only began to realize a change in the way people looked at me at the beginning of my sophomore year. Previously I had been pretty normal. Yeah people would tell me that I was “tall for my age,” but they would not really think twice about it. I was always a little bit taller than the majority of my peers, but everyone was still growing and probably figured I would stop.

Through experience, I have decided that there is a fine line between being classified as normal and exceptionally tall. Men under six-foot-four-inches are not looked at much differently than anyone else, while men over that height are looked at differently. I hit that 6’4” mark midway through my freshmen year of high school. (The average male stops significantly growing by the end of their freshmen year of high school.1) I continued to grow after that time and began to notice a change in the way that people reacted to me. Every inch I grew after freshmen year made me stand out even more. Now I am just about six-foot-nine-inches, which is way above that normal sized line. Sometimes it’s crazy to sit back and think that I am the same height or taller than some of my favorite professional athletes, such as Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James.

Throughout these past few years I have witnessed a vast array of reactions, from many different people. One reaction that I get a lot is usually from people a few years younger than me. Since people in this age group are WAY shorter than I am, my tall stature can intimidate them. It probably feels like they are looking up to the sky just to find my head. About a year ago I walked into school and bumped into an exceptionally short, skinny freshmen walking in the hallway. That skittish freshman glanced up at me, like a scared animal, gave a small gasp and then proceeded to walk away; as quickly as I’ve seen someone walk without running. I laughed at first but I thought about it for a while. I thought, “How could someone be scared of me?” I don’t think of myself as an intimidating person. People that get to know me often find that I am less intimidating than they might expect. I have an easygoing personality and I am very friendly when meeting people. For some reason this comes as a pleasant surprise to people.

Another reaction I get is the opposite of the first one; Strangers or acquaintances get excited to see such a tall human being. People will often walk up to me and say, “It must be so awesome,” or “I wish I had your height.” At first this made me feel something like a celebrity. Now I have heard it so much that I do not really think of it the same as before but it is still kind of funny. Sometimes I feel like saying, “Yeah it’s awesome when you have to fly on an airplane or try and find pants that fit!” I never do though.

When I was in New York City last year walking to the NIT basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden, multiple people stopped me on the street. I was wearing my Florida basketball sweatshirt because they were one of the teams playing later that day. The first person that stopped me said, “Good luck against VCU tonight man, I’ll be there!” When he said that I paused and was at a loss for words. Obviously I wasn’t playing at the world’s most famous arena that night. I realized that he assumed that I was on the team simply because of my height and apparel. On the rest of the short walk to the garden, two other guys asked if I was on the team, and a young kid asked for my autograph. I lied and told the people who asked that I was on the team but told the young boy the truth. How could they just assume that I was a Florida basketball player without asking? I was two inches shorter than I am now and at the time I was pretty sure there were other tall Florida basketball fans. That was an eye opening experience and made me realize that my height really made me stand out in the city.

Whether I am at a school assembly, walking through the city streets or standing at 12 o’clock mass on Sunday, I have trouble finding even one person that is my height or taller.  Almost every quiet stranger that passes by looks up at me and stares for a spit second. Sometimes they’re awkward about it and quickly look away, while other times they give me a phony or genuine smile. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Over these past few years I’ve had to learn how to deal with these frequent situations and expect specific responses when I am in a crowd or meeting people for the first time. I have come to embrace my height and find that it makes me unique. I have been the tallest guy in my class throughout all of high school. There are plenty of people who would kill to be my height and I appreciate how it affects me on a daily basis, especially in basketball. My height gives me advantages at trying to score, rebound and dunk. It also allows me to observe life from a somewhat unique vantage point. It is like looking down as a bird, hovering just above a forest.